11 



4. Amphibians. 



'5. Reptiles. 



G. Monotremata. 



7. Marsupials. 



8. Placental Mammals. 



9. Lemuridae. 

 ] 0. Simiadae. 



11. Old World Monkeys. 



12. Man. 



" O most lame and impotent conclusion ! " 



I, (Tyndall) believe that I can " prolong- my intellectual vision 

 backwards, into regions where the unscientific cannot follow," (none 

 but myself and those who think with me are scientific in my opinion,) 

 " and can discern in matter the promise and potency of every form and 

 quality of life." All who are opposed to me I, (Huxley), pronounce, 

 ex cathedra, to be " pigmies in intellect." This is a very easy way of setting 

 down opponents, and especially becoming, I think, in a " scientific man," 

 who calls himself a '' professor " of science, when before the annual 

 meeting of a scientific society. (At Belfast, 1874.) 



As to "prolonging my vision" forward, there I am in the dark, 

 even on my own confession. I am compelled to acknowledge that a 

 time may be coming when even a " professor " of irreligion and science, 

 " falsely so called," may have to say to religion, " give us of your oil, 

 for our lamps are gone out" into ''outer darkness." 



I, (Tyndall), aleo believe that life is a " continuous adjustment of 

 internal relations to external relations," by which process some original 

 tissue " vaguely sensitive all over " has come by degrees to be '' differ- 

 entiated " into man. " (0 Sapient la!)" I do not believe with Darwin 

 in a " Primordial form," the origin of all living beings ; I cannot tell 

 whence he proposes to derive it, but neither can I tell you whence my 

 original (very original !)" tissue" came. (Doctors differ you see.) 



All this is science ! knowledge ! ! philosophy ! ! ! very clear, as well 

 as very useful, and very profitable, is it not? as clear as the " Chaldsean 

 mud." 



It is really hard to say which of these " Philosophers " talks and 

 writes in the most senseless manner. These are some of their choicest 

 sayings. " These be thy Gods, Israel," and " miserable comforters 

 are they all." 



I believe that " the difficulty of understanding the absence of 

 various piles of strata" which, on my theory, no doubt were "sonten'hci'c . n 

 " /.v renj ///w/f." " The case at present must remain inexplicable, and 

 may be truly urged as a valid argument against the views here enter- 

 tained," Nevertheless, though I thus own that the evidence of nature 

 is against me and that I cannot get over the difficulty. I cannot give up 

 my own opinion, which must be right. 



I believe that as my theory must be true, the records of geology 

 are of no account. For " IF my theory be true " (as of course, as I have 

 said, it must be), " during those vast, yet quite unknown periods of time, 

 the world wanned with living creatures," but to the question why we 

 find no remains of them, as we do of others, ' I can give no satisfactory 

 answer." But what matters that V The evidence I want is not to be 

 had, but I can do equally well with or without evidence. 



I believe that all existing plants and animals " may " have been 

 " developed " from a seed of a seaweed, and If we admit this, as we 

 must, because I fancy it, then there can be no difficulty about the 

 matter. It may have been first " characteristically animal," and then 

 " unequivocably vegetable ;" and " I cannot doubt " but that it held 

 within it the potential existences of all creation, so as to develop in 



